Blood
by Eliza Garcia
Summary: Set after 7th year...Harry visits two lost friends. Please RR


**Title: **Blood

**Summary: **Set after their 7th year, Harry visits old friends and thinks.

**Rating: **PG 

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters mentioned, but it is my story.

**Author: **The End of All Things (formerly Elizabeth Potter)

**A/N: **This is my comeback fic, please read and review. Flames are welcomed; they keep me warm.

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      Snow that once fell gingerly onto the ground was caught up in a brief tornado of wind as a figure appeared into the silent graveyard. The figure was cloaked in sorrowful black, with emerald eyes being the only color that appeared on him. The figure made his way down the white path until he reached the end of a row, where two headstones stood. Although the names were covered by the snow, he knew they were the right ones.

     He clutched two red roses, whose thorns had not been removed. They cut into his skin, but he paid no mind. Those wounds, alike others, would soon heal. With a sigh, Harry fell onto his knees, between the stones and reached one hand out to wipe the snow away from the names. Red drops tainted the once innocent snow as his hand moved from side to side, the names and inscriptions slowly revealing themselves. 

**HERE LIES RONALD WEASLEY **

**BELOVED SON, BROTHER AND FRIEND**

**HERMIONE GRANGER**

**OUR DAUGHTER**

**OUR ANGEL**

**OUR FRIEND**

He knew the inscriptions by heart, and felt no need to read them again, so he looked down at the white ground and clutched his roses once more. It was eight years ago to the day that he had first spoken to his two best friends, and had to come back, at least one last time. 

     "I'm here again," he began, as he usually did. The snow had stopped falling, and now he only had headstones, gray skies, two red roses, and two dear friends to accompany him. 

     "I'm here because I have no where else to go," Harry slowly said, biting his lower lip and pushing his glasses back up his nose. "We don't go back to Hogwarts this year, remember? It seems like yesterday we were just first years, doesn't it? I wish we were, just one last time. I miss you guys." A soft wind began to blow, and one petal fell from a rose and blew into the distance. 

     "I never really got a chance to say this to you two, so I guess it's better late then never, eh?" he tried to chuckle slightly, but ended up coughing away tears.

     "You were my first friends, and even now, months after I've heard your voices, you still are. I never thanked you. You've both risked your lives so many times for my sake…and then finally, it was one too many times." Memories and flashes of the night began flooding into his mind once more. They were seventh years, literally fighting till the death. A flash of green and several screams and curses echoed in his head.

     "I told Dumbledore not to let you two go after me. But Ron, you've always been stubborn, and Herm, you've always been courageous. I would have gone after you two, anyway, so I can't blame you. But, why didn't you duck, Ron? Why didn't you turn around, Hermione? You never saw Him coming, but I did. Death eaters were everywhere…and then Him. I'll never forget the way He smirked at me and said the faithful words. In a flash of green light, you were both gone," Harry stopped, letting the tears fall this time. He hadn't really cried until now.

     "And for what? We didn't win that battle. The war rages on. Innocent people are still dying. You died because of me, and I'll never forgive myself for that. I love you two, but if you hadn't shared that compartment with me Ron, and if you hadn't taken the blame for the troll Hermione, you would have lived to graduate. If I had known your fate, Sirius' fate, Cedric's fate, Lupin's, Moody's…nearly everyone in the Order, I would have pushed you all away. Voldemort's--" through his tears, a brief vision of Ron wincing came to mind and it choked his crying and caused a brief glimpse of a smile to form on his face before misery took over again. "Voldemort's hand may have done it, but it was everyone's concern, friendship, love, devotion, loyalty, whatever you want to call it, it was everyone's caring for _me_ that caused them death and pain. So many friends have been lost along the way, but you two were so much more then I could bear," 

      "I want it all to end, right now. I don't care anymore. I'm supposed to be the answer to this long fight, but I can't do this anymore. If I didn't hear your voices in my head, then maybe I would give up. I just want to be with you two again. I want to laugh. But I can't give up." A strong wind rustled the leafless trees around him, and began forcing the clouds away. 

      "For you two, I'll hold on just long enough to defeat Him. I still hold hope that we will. You didn't die in vain, I promise you. I'll hold on. But when He's gone and everything is new again, I'll come to you two. One sweet day, we'll be together again," Harry kissed the petals on each rose and then gently laid one down near each of their headstones. He looked up and a new faith, or another force, helped him up. As he wiped the tears away with his arm, a small smile formed as he gazed a last time at his friends. He nodded a goodbye, and slowly began walking away. 

      The blood still lingered on his hands, but it would be the last blood shed on His account.


End file.
